Garrett Hallford caught the Dallas Stars wave as young child in the Dallas suburb of McKinney.

Some plastic golf clubs his parents purchased him suddenly turned into hockey sticks when he was watching the Stars in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and began a hockey obsession.

He had such an obsession with hockey that his parents put him on skates at 3 years old and shortly after he started playing competitively. Nearly two decades later, Hallford is still playing the game and is a rarity in a league filled with players from hockey hotbeds such as Canada, Michigan, New England and Minnesota, while he carries a banner for Texas.

Hallford, an IceRays forward, is not alone as there are Texans around junior hockey but he does feel like he is carrying the flag of his native state.

“When I was younger my dad used to tell me, ‘You have the Texas swagger,’ and I’ve always had in the back of my head you are doing something they are not,” Hallford said. “You have guys from all over and the international guys they feel like they carry the weight of Russia on their shoulders or wherever. With as much pride as Texas has, I’m carrying that pride that we can do it just like you guys can.”

Hallford’s hockey journey was not spent entirely in Texas because when he was 14 years old, he and his parents made the tough decision to have him play in Michigan for a Little Caesar’s travel team around the Detroit area.

He lived in a billet home and since has been on the road chasing his hockey dream.

“The very first snow day we had it was snowing maybe an inch or two and the alarm goes off for school and I look out the window and I see snow and go back to bed,” Hallford said. “My billet mom comes running up and said you’ve got to get up but I said, ‘It’s snowing.’ She said you’ve still got to go school. That’s when it hit me I wasn’t in Texas anymore.”

Hallford has had stints in the United States Hockey League, the United States’ top junior circuit, and played for Shreveport during the 2016-17 season. He was released from Shreveport in October of 2016 and was later signed by the IceRays.

The signing brought Hallford back to his home state where his family comes and watches him play nearly every other weekend.

Hallford has played in all 60 regular season games for the IceRays this season and is fourth on the team in total points with 35 and has 14 goals to go with 21 assists. Hallford has turned into a key cog for the IceRays’ offense and is also a solid defensive forward that is not afraid to go near the net.

Corpus Christi coach Brad Flynn said Hallford did not play against his former team in the playoffs last season. Flynn added, though, that after he notified Hallford he would not play, Hallford gave him a scouting report on the team for nearly 90 minutes without hesitation.

“I told him I have a long memory too,” Flynn said. “When he came back we were talking to our whole staff and I told them this guy plays with so much passion and heart, and he gets tons of chances. The biggest thing is he’s got his confidence early and he’s ridden it and confidence is such a big thing at this level.”

Hallford, 19, is hoping his hockey journey will take him to a college to continue playing as he continues to weigh his options and has learned plenty in his junior career, including that team success helps individual success. Plus, he has the chip on his shoulder for representing Texas that also helps.

“At the end of the day, you only go as far as you push yourself,” Hallford said. “I’ve had a lot of self-motivation and thankful I put in the hard work to get me to this point.”